An extension of the Common Sense Journalism monthly column by Doug Fisher, former broadcaster, newspaper reporter and wire service editor. From new media to old, much of journalism is just plain common sense."In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Unknown (often improperly attributed to Thomas Jefferson)
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair
"Common sense is not so common" - Voltaire
"Common sense is instinct; enough of it is genius" - George Bernard Shaw

Friday, October 14, 2005

'Completed' suicide

In a recent story about those trying to change views on suicide, The State newspaper in Columbia adopted the group's term "completed" suicide.

Advocates use the word “complete” instead of “commit” as a way of trying to break the stigma attached to suicide.

The article went on to use "complete" instead of "commit" throughout. A student questioned that, so I threw the question open to the American Copy Editors Society listserv, where the reaction was almost uniformly negative. There also was a backdoor message from Pam Wood at the AMA, which I think provides a lot of insight. She has given me permission to post it:

Both "completed suicide" and "committed suicide" have places in the medical literature, but they're not interchangeable terms.

"Completed suicide" is used to differentiate the act from attempted suicide and other suicide gestures. It's a noun phrase. (eg: Attempted and completed suicide rates are higher among those who live alonebecause of separation, divorce, or spouse's death. Of about 200,000 suicide attempts in the USA each year, 10% are completed.

Committed suicide is the action, and is a verb phrase. (In one study, 10% of alcoholics committed suicide. More than half of persons who commit suicide have consulted their physician within the previous few months.)

(All examples from the same entry in the Merck Manual)

To my knowledge (and I do usually hear about it), none of the major medical groups have expressed an opinion on terminology.

Pam Woodchief copy editorAmerican Medical News

The State did use committed in the hed on this Philadelphia Inquirer sports story yesterday.

2 Comments:

In Ms. Wood's last sentence, is she correct by saying "none ... have?" I've always thought the word takes singular verbs or pronouns, but after checking AP, I learned if the sense is "no two" or "no amount", one would use a plural verb.So, what sense is she using here?

Graeme(Sorry to post anonymously, but I've forgotten by blogspot password)

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Yes, I do coaching and consulting. That is the only shameless commerce you'll get from me here. Go to the bottom of the blog for more details.
Who am I: A longtime print and broadcast reporter/editor/producer and then AP news editor who now professes journalism at the University of South Carolina. (But please note, nothing on this blog represents official university policy or sentiment. If it did, I'd be very concerned.)My point: That journalism is a great occupation, that most journalism is common sense and that our problems arise when we sometimes don't use it.What's covered: My interests center on editing and writing and on editors and the challenges they face in a changing environment. I'm convinced editors are not being trained enough to face these challenges, but that common sense rules the day. I'm heavily involved in Newsplex, the new-media newsroom at the University of South Carolina. But my interests are wide-ranging, so anything, from ethics to some aspects of Web design, is fair game.
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